Thursday, May 25, 2017

"Stranger Things" Season 1 debuted last summer, but fans will have to wait until Halloween for Season 2, which now sounds like perfect timing for the evil horror show ahead.

"Stranger Things" director/producer Shawn Levy recently had a video Q&A with Gold Derby, discussing the show, its secret viewer numbers (Netflix won't tell him exactly how many people watch, but he feels like it's a lot, relative to other series), and his other production work.

Season 2 is meant to pick up at Halloween of 1984, about a year after the events of Season 1, exploring the larger mythology of Will Byers's disappearance. As Levy told Gold Derby:

"Will Byers [Noah Schnapp] is very much at the center of several intersecting challenges and threats in Season 2, and I think overall the kind of forces of evil that are inherent in Season 2 make that Demogorgon look quaint in retrospect."

Awww. But the Demogorgon was kinda cute, no?

Levy said Season 1 was directed entirely by himself and "Stranger Things" creators the Duffer Brothers, but in Season 2 they opened the field to two new directors:

"That's been the difference this year. Last year we were very, very protective. In our first meeting with Netflix they were like 'so what kinds of directors are you going to get for the show?' and I was like 'it's going to be the brothers or me. That's it. No one from the outside.' I think it's why Season 1 has a real consistency to the tone, and to the look, and to the vision. This year, we've had two other directors come in and do episodes: Andrew Stanton and Rebecca Thomas, and those episodes are turning out great."

Watch more from Levy:There are a few new characters coming in Season 2, including Sean Astin as Bob Newby, Paul Reiser as Owens, Linnea Berthelsen as Roman, Brett Gelman as Murray Bauman, Will Chase as Neil Mayfield, Sadie Sink as Max, and Dacre Montgomery as Billy.

"Sean Astin is a force. He's gonna surprise," Ross Duffer told Entertainment Tonight, a few months back. "He's just an incredible actor and he blows us away every day on set." Shawn Levy added to ET, of Astin's character, "Bob is new to our weird Hawkins group, but he's immediately memorable and I think people are going to be very surprised by where that takes them this year."